Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Farewell, ‘Being Human.’ We will always be besties

{Spoiler alert! If you have not seen the series finale of
“Being Human” on SyFy (I’m talking about the U.S. version of the series) then
read ahead at your own risk!}

Can I just start by saying what total creeps the
powers-that-be are who decided not to tell viewers that this series was ENDING
until, like, five episodes ago? Sorry, but I need more time to process, thank
you. I mean, this was a show about a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost who
became roommates and who navigated the murky waters of (drumroll please) trying
to be human against their natures. It could have gone on forever. Literally.

I’ll be honest. I’ve watched the show since season 1 episode
1. I liked that first season okay. But I became addicted during the second
season, totally became a Josh and Nora shipper somewhere along the way, and am
more than a little peeved to be saying goodbye to Aidan, Sally, Josh and Nora
now. I mean, they were my Monday night homies! My moping buddies, because, boy,
did those four know how to bring the angst. Just sayin’.

As for the finale itself, good gracious, where do I begin?

I’ll begin by saying I was skeptical about this one, folks.
The last half of the season felt kind of, I dunno, rushed, maybe? And I wasn't sold on some of the plots happening in this finale either. Just sayin.'

When we last saw our supernatural roommates, they were
basically trapped on moving day by psycho ghost girl Ramona, who it turns out
was (spoiler alert!) a manifestation of THE HOUSE itself! And the house did not
want them to leave. Seriously.

Obviously the last episode picked up from the cliffhanger
from the episode before it, but we also got a series of flashbacks to
happier times with a poignant voiceover from Sally that tightened my chest and
filled me with both sentiment and foreboding. Then, boom, we’re back in the present.

Ramona had sent our favorite vampire Aidan into a
grief-stricken rampage intent on killing Josh, and I assume Nora, so
that Josh and Nora’s ghosts would be trapped in the house forever with Sally and Ramona.

I was like, Nooooooooooo! After all Aidan and Josh have been
through together, all it took was a psycho ghost girl to push Aidan over the
edge? And that’s another thing. Psychotic young girls seem to be the thing on
genre shows this season. I mean, Lizzie from The Walking Dead anyone?

Anyway.

We’re not even five minutes into the episode when Sally
makes a decision to sacrifice herself to save the others, most specifically Aidan. She does some crazy
magic spell, and (spoiler alert) Aidan's not a
vampire anymore!

Before you ask, well, why didn’t she do that sooner? I’ll
tell you. Because it meant the end of ghost Sally. She had just enough time to
say her goodbyes to Aidan, Josh and Nora before fading into oblivion. Based on
past occurrences of the show, we were left to assume she literally went into
oblivion because she had previously passed on her door, which would have taken
her to the afterlife. And the scene was so quick. Almost as fast as this...

Break my heart, Sally. Because you did. I was totally like
this, when I realized she was just…gone.

Poof! Four seasons, and Sally’s big sendoff was in the first
eight minutes of the last episode of the series. I felt kind of cheated by
that, actually, but you know what? It kind of makes sense when you think about
it, so kudos to the writers for that strategic move.

Then we moved on with the heartbroken Josh, Nora, and Aidan,
who fled the evil house and made it to Josh and Nora’s new place. It was Nora’s
quip that lightened the moment — and I laughed too even though I was sad, at the idea of Sally bursting right out of Aidan's chest — then the survivors decided to do what
anyone in a time of great stress would do. Go eat.

It was a cute scene with the three friends in the diner as
Aidan, after centuries of eating only people, enjoyed his first cheeseburger.
And it was in that moment that I realized that while the show had started with
the main three — Sally the ghost, Aidan the vampire, and Josh the werewolf —
Nora the werewolf had slipped in and truly claimed her place, too.

I totally heart Josh and Nora, in case I haven’t mentioned
it. He bumbled around for four seasons, but in the end, he got the girl. The girl he accidentally turned into a werewolf, but eh, accidents happen.

Anyway, when we come back from commercial we’re back at the
hospital where nurse Nora mournfully informs Aidan his body is catching up with
his age, and he only has one week to live. Actually, Aidan gives himself one week to live because Nora thinks he should already be dead, but whatever. Go ahead and step on my heart some
more, Being Human, cause I’m like this at this point.

So Aidan decides to have a positive outlook and suggests to
Josh and Nora they spend his last week together, being happy, and ooops, he
accidentally mentions the fact that Nora is pregnant, even though she hasn’t
told her hubby Josh yet. Way to go, Aidan. You dunce. *sniffs*

We have a nice, normal scene with Josh and Nora, where we’re
treated to a voiceover by Nora that makes that tightness in my chest squeeze harder. We also get a scene with Aidan in a bar, drinking his sorrows
away, where he meets a new vampire and offers the guy some advice on how to
survive. And then he shocks the heck out of me by asking the vampire to turn
him again.

Then Josh comes and finds him and sends the vampire away,
and Aidan breaks down and admits he’s afraid to die. And he admits it in the
most heartbreaking way possible. Because Aidan believes
when he dies, there will be no heaven for him because of all the horrible
things he’s done. But Josh, being Josh, gives him a big ole man hug and lets
Aidan cry. Because that's what Josh has always done throughout the show — offer his humanity (which he never lost) as an example to the others. I realize that now.

Which makes me do this…

Before the show can end, though, we’re reminded of Ramona,
who Aidan reads in a newspaper has killed a construction worker in their old
house. He and Josh decide to end Ramona once and for all, but Aidan lies to
Josh, sending him away to get Nora, while Aidan goes alone to take
care of business.

So Aidan the dying human sacrifices himself by burning down
the house — with himself in it — and destroying the evil Ramona in the process.
The house had to die. I realize that now. It was as much of a character all
four seasons as the living people, and I needed that closure as much as the
characters did.

And Aidan died. Again. For good. Excellent mirroring by the writers, having him land on the same spot Sally landed on when she died in the show's first episode.

And I’m like this…

Especially when Nora and Josh arrive at the house, only to
find it burnt to the ground. They walk through the ruins, and suddenly, wait a
second, there’s Aidan! Ghost Aidan, who is happy to see his friends and say his
goodbyes right before his door appears.

That’s right, Aidan. You got a door. And presumably since
Aidan sacrificed himself to save the others, his door led to a very good place,
which it did, because there was Sally on the other side, waiting for the
ex-vampire beefcake with open arms and kisses. Which meant that Sally went to a
good place, too! I think.

It was a very bittersweet moment, because these two
angst-ridden characters got a very final happy ever after. I'm not sure how I felt about the sudden Sally-loves-Aidan and vice versa plot that was pushed on us, but you can't deny they did LOVE each other as best friends. So I was ugly crying
in both a good and a sad way.

I was very emotional, more than I expected to be. Maybe my hormones are whacked, but still.

So then we get our last scenes with Josh and Nora — with a
very optimistic voiceover by Josh — and see them years ahead. Happy. Still
together. And with a daughter named Sally and a son named Aidan.

The end.

And I was, unfortunately, pretty inconsolable at that point.

Honestly, I’m not sure if Being Human ever intended to be more than a genre show about a
ghost, a vampire and a werewolf living together, but the final episode was so full
of substance, it really deserves some serious credit. The inclusion of the voiceovers — one for each character — was a nice touch, something the show had never done before that I can remember. It helped with the closure of the series, hearing the characters each explain what the past four seasons had meant to each of them.

I saw someone on Twitter say this, and so I'm stealing it (sorry anonymous Twitterer: please don't sue me). If TV shows had souls, Being Human deserved to be greeted
with a big, shiny door to a very happy place when its credits faded to black one last time.

I really think Being Human was too good of a show to have been buried on the SyFy Channel. It's dialogue was smart, the talented cast had fantastic chemistry, and the stories were always entertaining, even though sometimes I had to shake my head at them, to be honest. I loved these characters, and that was the point of the show, wasn't it? To make these monsters seem human?

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About Me

An eclectic reader who loves almost every genre, Angela Campbell read her first romance novel at 16 and immediately endeavored to write one, too. Many offbeat attempts (and a couple of decades) later, she finally published her first novel and now writes thrilling romantic paranormal suspense stories full of humor and fluff (cats and dogs). Learn more about her books at www.angelacampbellonline.com.